Help me decide: Minimum caliber for larger NA game

[ridgeline300]

I'm not sure I follow your reply but I'll take a shot at it.

I don't shoot factory loads in the SAUM and I don't push it to the edge with my reloads. Brass and barrel life reasons

The OP said to assume factor loads. I am guessing he meant he wanted a cartridge that he could find in factory loaded ammunition and on off the shelf gun. While I think the Sherman's are awesome, I don't think you can find them at your local sportsmans warehouse!

 

[nwhunter]

I have a Kimber 84M Hunter in .30-06 that I had re-chambered to .30 Gibbs. It propels the 190 Berger at 2806 FPS with more room.

Sounds like quite a rifle!

 

[Wolf76]

Good thing we never told the Eskimos in Alaska that they needed more than a 223, 30/30 or 30/06 to kill the largest Bears including Polar and Moose in North America. LOL
Always makes me chuckle when I see statements like this. (If U R talking Shiras moose and Black bears, then 300 mags will do.}

This is kind of a nonsensical comment. Eskimos will make anything available work. If money and supplies weren't an issue, do you think they would still choose those guns? Or the boats and huts they use?
To suggest their former/current choices are optimal when better options are available is willfully ignorant.
For clarity, I have amazing respect for what they achieve.

 

[FEENIX]

Sounds like quite a rifle!

So far so good. Here's the thread about it https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/30-gibbs-is-finally-ready.242088/

 

[HunterMann]

Sorry for the continuation

I shot my first moose with a 308 right through the heart. Not much reaction from the moose, so I added second shot through both lungs. The moose turned away from me amble about 20 yards and fell over.

Sorry for the the continuation... so any of the standard calibers are adequate for moose to 300 yards. I did not catch any details on which bears that were to be be hunted, but there is huge difference between hunting black bears from stands or hounds and stalking coastal brown bears. Once again the standard calibers are fine for black bears at any reasonable range. The 30-06 is excellent and the derivative cartridges 338-06 and 35 Whelen offer bit more impact out to the 300 yards mentioned. If your want to go longer the 7mm rem mag, 300 win mag, and newer cartridges like the 300 PRC start to shine. But if you are after grumpy grizzlies or big brown bears you really need stopping power to anchor these beasts. The 300 and 338 magnums are probably a minimum starting point and you can go up from there. Personally I would choose bigger over faster.

 

[BwanaObie]

Dgascho, I have to agree with K. No need to be exotic in what you're looking for. Jack O'Connor's favorite did every thing he asked of it meaning his beloved 270 Win. A good number of years ago when I got back from operations overseas I was out hunting in the Panther River and Ya Ha Tinda area of Alberta with a pocket full of tags. Presently a nice young bull moose came into view across a slight canyon of dead ground. It was a cold and crisp November morning with not a detectable breeze between the bull and myself.

Sighted in for 250 yards with a good rest I held just over the back of the paused animal and touched off a 130 grain Remington High Energy partition. At the shot the bull leaped straight up and landed facing the exact direction he'd been coming from. The animal stood there for about 15 seconds, then began to shake and slowly toppled over on his side - crushing a 20 foot spruce tree that was close by. When we come-a-longed the bull onto his back for skinning and butchering I felt his hide on the opposite side and sure enough - there was a small bulge 2/3 of the way down just behind the shoulders. The 130 grain 270 slug had perfectly mushroomed, taking out the veins and top of the heart and ended bulging out on the hide of the opposite side. The range was a measured 625 yards! That old 270 cartridge with modern bullets had again proven itself most capable if the nut behind the gun did his part. Love that fine, ageless 270 Winchester cartridge...!

 

[central iowa couple]

I agree the 270 is amazing. I ask the guide we hunted with this fall what most people use for elk. He said that the longest shot anyone has ever successfully killed an elk in his camps was around 700 yds.(i forget the actual distance) and it was with a 270. That person was in camp this year and told us about the shot. I was shocked...actually. So to be fair...he this year was carrying one of the 30 magnums....wsm or win. His father in law was carrying the 270 this year. The 270 is still revelent

 

[DENRIK89]

7 SAUM or one of the Sherman choices, 7 Max, 7SS, 338SS

I'm still working on a load for my 338 SS, recoil is not bad at all. 2800 plus with a 205gr Hammer. I have some 175gr Hammers on hand to try, I hope 29?? something can be reached.

My 7 SAUM is a great shooter, 162gr or 175gr ELDX. The 175s with 58gr of RE26 are running 2751 avg. Looking at my log book I don't see any notes about pressure so there might be a little more speed there. The 175s like H1000 too. The 168 VLD Hunters are also a good bullet for me.

The thing that puts the SAUM last on the list is brass availability

This! Or 7 rem mag

 

[Joefrazell]

I shot my cow last season at 550 with a 143ELDX in my Creed. I agree with you, it felt like it needs a bit more pepper past 500. I traded that creedmore for a 6.5PRC so we'll see how it preforms this year. Hoping it loves those 156 Bergers going 3000+.-WW

That's definitely a worthwhile step up going prc. I was using the 147 eldm so pretty similar to the 143 eldx. We shot two cows with it and it worked but this year I'll be using my 7 rem mag or 300 prc.

 

[Joefrazell]

Interestingly enough, a buddy who guides for a local outfitter just told me they had hunters use the guides personal rifles, because they had cans (tbac ultra 7's) in.....6.5 creedmoor. They wanted suppressed to keep from pushing elk out of the country. They killed 30 cows with them using the 143eldx factory hunter precision.

A cow is about 1/2 the size of an old bull

 

[Wyo37]

A cow is about 1/2 the size of an old bull

Ok.

 

[Shootin4fun]

At the range I use earplugs AND hear muffs. My ear mufs are comfortable to wear all day, though not as nice as just being au natural. However, they are the electronic ones and actually amplify ambient sounds, which is good and bad. Your footsteps are amplified, but so are deer footsteps or the sounds of other things in the forest.

Ha, anybody see The Who or any of that class rock band back in the day? Say what? lol

 

[Shootin4fun]

A cow is about 1/2 the size of an old bull

He didn't say what distance. Within 300 yards, they could probably place a shot within 2" of the POI, and the ELX seems to explode from the pics we've seen here and elsewhere. I hate to mention it but on the 6.5G site, people talk about the Elk they took with them, so there's that...

 

[manitouhunter]

I use a .378 Weatherby for anything from foxes to elephants it works. With the muzzle brake on my daughter does just fine with it. Using high bc bullets I have shot coyotes at a little over a thousand yards.